William Maxwell Evarts
(February 6, 1818 –
February 28, 1901)
was an American
lawyer and
statesman who served as US
Secretary of State, US Attorney
General and US Senator from New York
.
He was
born in Boston,
Massachusetts
, the son of author, editor, and Indian removal opponent Jeremiah Evarts, and the grandson of
Declaration
of Independence signer Roger
Sherman.
School, family, and early career
William
attended Boston Latin
School
, graduated from Yale
College in 1837 and then attended Harvard Law School
. While at Yale he became a member of the
secret society Skull and
Bones
, but later in life spoke out against such societies
at the 1873 Yale commencement alumni meeting, claiming they bred
snobbishness.
He was
admitted to the bar in New
York in 1841, and soon took high rank in his
profession. He married Helen Minerva Bingham Wardner in
1843. They had 12 children between 1845 and 1862, all born in New
York City.
Political career
A
Whig Party supporter
before joining the fledgling
Republican Party, Evarts was
appointed an assistant United States district attorney and served
from 1849-1853. In 1860 he was chairman of the New York delegation
to the
Republican
National Convention where he placed Senator
William H. Seward's name in nomination for President.
In 1861 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the
United States Senate from New York. He
was a member of the State constitutional convention in
1867-1868.
He was chief counsel for
President Andrew Johnson during the
impeachment trial, and from
July 1868 until March 1869 he was Johnson's
Attorney General of the
United States.
In 1872 he was counsel for the United States before the tribunal of arbitration on the Alabama claims at Geneva,
Switzerland
.
Evarts served as counsel for President-elect
Rutherford B. Hayes, on behalf of the Republican
Party, before the
Electoral
Commission in the disputed
U.S. presidential election of
1876. During President
Rutherford B. Hayes's administration he was
United States Secretary of
State. He was a delegate to the International Monetary
Conference at Paris 1881.
From 1885 to 1891 he was a U.S.
Senator from New York.
While in Congress (
49th,
50th and
51st Congresses), he
served as chairman of the
U.S. Senate Committee on
the Library from 1887 to 1891. As an orator Senator Evarts
stood in the foremost rank, and some of his best speeches were
published.
He led the
American fund-raising effort for the pedestal for the Statue of
Liberty
and spoke at its unveiling on October 28,
1886.
Retirement
Senator Evarts retired from public life due to ill health in 1891.
He was also part of a law practice in New York City called Evarts,
Southmoyd and Choate.
He died in New York City
and was buried at Ascutney Cemetery in Windsor,
Vermont
.
Portrait of William M.
Extended family
William was a member of the extended
Baldwin, Hoar & Sherman
family, which had many members in American politics.
Ebenezer R. Hoar, a first cousin of Evarts, was a
U.S. Attorney General, Associate Justice of
the Supreme Judicial Court of
Massachusetts
and representative in Congress. The two were
best friends, and shared similar professional pursuits and
political beliefs. Each served, in succession, as United States
Attorney General. Some of Evarts's other first cousins include U.S.
Senator
& Governor of the State of Connecticut
, Roger Sherman
Baldwin; U.S. Senator for Massachusetts (brother of
Ebenezer R.)
George F. Hoar; and California
state senator and founding trustee of the University of California, Sherman Day.
Son
Maxwell Evarts graduated from
Yale
College
in 1884, where he was also a member of Skull and
Bones. He served as a New York City District
attorney, and then later as General Counsel for
E. H. Harriman, which later became the
Union Pacific Railroad, president of
two (2) Windsor, VT banks, and the chief financial backer of the
Gridley Automatic Lathe
(manufactured by the Windsor Machine
Co.). In politics, Maxwell served as a representative in the
Vermont state legislature and was a Vermont State Fair
Commissioner.
Allen Wardner Evarts, another son, graduated from
Yale College in 1869. He supported the founding
of
Wolf's Head Society,
and was first president of its alumni association and held the
position for 20 years over two separate terms.
He was a law partner,
corporate president, and trustee of Vassar
College
.
Grandson
Maxwell E. Perkins was the famed Charles Scribner's
Sons editor of
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Ernest Hemingway,
Thomas Wolfe,
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and
James Jones.
Great nephew
Evarts Boutell
Greene was the famed American historian appointed
Columbia University's first
De Witt Clinton Professor of History 1923,
Department Chairman from 1926 to 1939. Chairman of the Columbia
Institute of Japanese Studies, 1936–39. He was a noted authority on
the American Colonial and
Revolutionary War periods.
Another relative,
Henry Sherman Boutell, was a member of the Illinois
state house of representatives, 1884; member of the
U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1897 to 1911 (6th
District 1897-1903, 9th District 1903-11); delegate,
Republican National
Convention from Illinois, 1908; U.S.
Minister, Switzerland
, 1911-13.
Great great nephew
Roger Sherman
Greene II, the son of Daniel Crosby Greene and Mary Jane
(Forbes) Greene; was the U.S.
Vice Consul in Rio de Janeiro
, 1903-04; Nagasaki, 1904-05; Kobe, 1905; U.S. Consul in Vladivostok
, 1907; Harbin
, 1909-11;
U.S. Consul General in
Hankow, 1911-14.
Great
great nephew Jerome Davis Greene
(1874-1959): President, Lee, Higginson & Company from 1917 to
1932; Secretary, Harvard University
Corporation from 1905 to 1910 & 1934-1943;
General Manager of the Rockefeller
Institute 1910-1012, assistant and secretary to John D. Rockefeller Jr. as Trustee,
Rockefeller Institute; Trustee,
Rockefeller Foundation; Trustee,
Rockefeller General Education Board from 1910 to 1939. executive
secretary, American Section - Allied Maritime Transport Council,
1918 Joint Secretary of the Reparations,
Paris Peace Conference, 1919;
Chairman, American Council Institute of Pacific Relations, 1929-32;
Trustee,
Brookings Institution
of Washington from 1928 to 1945; and a founding member of the
Council on Foreign
Relations.
Great-grandson
Archibald Cox served as
a U.S. Solicitor General and special prosecutor during President
Richard Nixon's
Watergate Scandal, whereas Evarts defended
a U.S.
President Andrew
Johnson in his impeachment trial. In a sense, they both
successfully argued their cases, which represent two of the three
U.S. Presidential impeachment efforts. An impeachment trial was
never held in Nixon's case, due to the president's
resignation.
Sources
Popular Culture
William M. Evarts was a running gag in the Jack Benny radio episode
of 53-04-05 Easter Parade.
References
External links
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